Winter 2003

Dear Mitt: By now, I’m sure you’ve grown accustomed to the joys of being governor. You know what I’m talking about: The invitations to forums and events. The endless meeting requests. The hours of poring over your first budget proposal. You have close aides and advisors to help you sort those things out. Here is(...)

Workforce Development and the New UnionismEdited by Penn Kemble; introduction by Morton BahrNew Economy Information Service, Washington, DC, 210 pages. The second half of 2002 showcased, in rapid sequence, the past, present, and (possibly) future of the American labor movement. The contract dispute on the Pacific docks conjured up the Spirit of Labor Past: A(...)

With a transition team of nearly 100 of the biggest movers and shakers in Massachusetts politics and business, Mitt Romney had no shortage of input as he took the helm of state government. But with the tough straits he’s in, we figure the new governor could use all the tips he can get. So we(...)

First Job: A Memoir of Growing Up at WorkBy Rinker BuckPublic Affairs, New York, 396 pages. Several years ago I was at a reunion of journalism alumni at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst when I heard the following: “Heeeey! How ya doing? I haven’t seen you since that double fatal in Winchendon!” This is not a(...)

Your article “On-the-job training” (Fall 2002) highlighted the CALL initiative of the Jewish Vocational Service of Greater Boston as providing essential post-employment follow-up services that are so critical to the long-term career success of our “at-risk” population. Job Corps, the nation’s largest residential employment and educational-training program for economically disadvantaged youth, has also recognized and(...)

KINGSTON–On windy days, commuters shield their eyes from the flecks of sand and dust blowing toward them as they step onto the commuter-rail platform in Kingston. Abutting the station is a desert-like expanse of 140 acres, and no one really knows when or how the land is going to be developed. Seven years ago, advocates(...)

For a newly elected governor, the transition to office is a heady time, but it’s also politically perilous. Buoyed by victory at the polls and stocked up with advice from the worthies on the transition team, any new chief executive comes into the corner office assuming a popular mandate to implement his vision of government.(...)

How much of a burden are taxes in Massachusetts compared with other states? It all depends on how you make the comparison. In one common measure–total tax burden (state and local tax revenue) per capita–the Bay state ranks near the top 94th in the nation in fiscal year 1999). But that ordering ignores differences in(...)

The more people are informed about the impact of legalizing casino gambling– better described as the tax-by-casino plan– the more they will see it’s a bad idea for Massachusetts. Casinos neither lower taxes nor solve a state’s fiscal problems. Casinos would fund state services by draining the wallets of the very people most in need(...)

By the age of 35, Gerald Chertavian had made so much money that his two children would probably never have to work a day in their lives. Now the Lowell native has dedicated his life to ensuring that young adults without such advantages can find jobs in the technology-driven economy of the 21st century. “There(...)